Teens who see junk food ads eat 500 more snacks a year

Teenagers who watch lots of television adverts eat far more junk food, researchers have warned.

Experts found youngsters who watched more than three hours of commercial TV a day ate more unhealthily than those who watched very little.

On average, they had ten extra snack items, such as crisps, biscuits or fizzy drinks, a week – totalling more than 500 a year.

However, when they watched TV without adverts, there was no link between screen time and the likelihood of eating more junk food, the Cancer Research UK team found, suggesting adverts may drive snacking.

Campaigners have long called for a ban on junk-food advertising before the 9pm watershed – but ministers have so far resisted.

Advertising high-calorie food is banned during programmes aimed at children. But health campaigners point out that this does not apply to mainstream shows such as The X Factor or live football matches, which millions of youngsters watch.

Britain’s obesity problem is the worst in western Europe, with two-thirds of adults and a third of children overweight. Experts fear that the pattern will lead to major health problems, with rates of heart disease and diabetes predicted to soar.

Obesity is also the second biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking.

Researcher Dr Jyotsna Vohra said: ‘This is the strongest evidence yet that junk food adverts could increase how much teens choose to eat.

‘We’re not claiming that every teenager who watches commercial TV will gorge on junk food, but this research suggests there is a strong association between advertisements and eating habits. It’s been ten years since the first, and only, TV junk food marketing regulations were introduced by Ofcom and they’re seriously out of date.

‘Our report suggests that reducing junk food TV marketing could help to halt the obesity crisis.’ The study was based on a YouGov survey, which questioned 3,348 youngsters aged 11 to 19 on their TV viewing habits and diet.

Separate research by the Obesity Health Alliance has found that more than half of food and drink adverts shown during popular family TV shows were for products high in fat, sugar and salt, which would be banned from children’s TV channels.

Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s prevention expert, said: ‘The Government needs to work with Ofcom to protect the health of the next generation.’

Professor Russell Viner, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said the study showed the power of advertising, and Caroline Cerny, of the Obesity Health Alliance, added: ‘Companies wouldn’t spend so much on advertising junk food if they didn’t think it worked.’

Up to 56,000 children in the UK with a genetic condition could benefit from the drugs, experts say.

Prescribed in their millions to the middle-aged and elderly to lower cholesterol, the drugs were thought to have side effects that would pose a risk to youngsters.

Now a University College London trial, which tracked 300 children as young as seven on statins for a year, has found there is no impact on their growth, or damage to the liver and muscles. It is thought statins could help the 56,000 sufferers of familial hypercholesterolaemia, which causes youngsters to have blocked arteries through childhood and puts them at risk of a heart attack as early as their 20s.

Researchers also found children with the condition were half as likely to be obese, probably as they had been given dietary advice to cut cholesterol. Study leader Professor Steve Humphries said: ‘These findings are incredibly reassuring. Now, we can offer parents of children with the condition further comfort that the treatment is safe to take from a young age.’